U.S. Representative Ed Royce

They couldn’t be more different: the stiletto who aims for targeted foreign policy legislation and the sledgehammer who pounds away at big domestic investigations.

Meet Southern California Reps. Ed Royce and Darrell Issa, among the most powerful people in Congress. Each steers an influential committee in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives – Royce at the helm of Foreign Affairs, Issa in charge of Oversight and Government Reform.

“They are oil and water personalities,” said Christopher Deering, professor of political science at George Washington University who specializes in Congress.

Royce’s work helps shape U.S. foreign policy legislation and keeps an eye on diplomatic endeavors, from foreign aid to international broadcasting to treaties. Royce takes on singular causes, too, such as the 275 schoolgirls kidnapped by terrorists Boko Haram in Nigeria and the Marine sergeant who has been sitting in a Mexico jail since March.

He pops up on CNN or Fox News and is known among the Washington press corps as very accessible, yet he is also called “the quiet one.”

Issa uses broad investigative powers to hold the federal government accountable for how it spends taxpayer money and has led the charge to investigate IRS practices regarding tax-exempt political committees and the Benghazi consular attack.

He frequently lands on the nightly news, and conservative media follow him closely.

“I think Ed Royce is a fairly reliable conservative, a pretty good watchdog internationally, and I know he exerts a lot of time and energy in the community,” said Ann Coil, a longtime politics watcher who coordinates Santa Ana’s Tea Party Patriots. “Darrell seems a little more moderate, but I think he’s doing a pretty good job in that IRS investigation.”

‘The Workhorse’

Ed Royce is known as “The Workhorse.” He’s a reflective detail man who cultivates camaraderie and common ground on his 45-member committee. His trips abroad, such as an April journey to Ukraine, are jammed with a meeting itinerary that rivals speed dating. He’s not exactly Mr. Excitement on television, observers concede, with expressions that range from serious to more serious.

But opposition Democrats praise the Fullerton representative. “First, Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for this meeting,” piped up Gregory Meeks, D.-N.Y., at a May hearing on the Boko Haram kidnappings. “I want to be clear – I concur with you and I think the research work your staff has done is excellent.”

‘The Show horse‘

Now for “Mr. Show Horse.” Lots of people become emotional about Issa, who represents southern Orange County and northern San Diego County. Supporters see him as fearless, relentless and pugnacious. He’s the guy waving his arms and shouting that towering government powers will not get away with cover-ups, stonewalling, profligate spending. Conservatives who believe the country is headed in the wrong direction cheer him.

To detractors on the left, however, he is bombastic, a showman, a headline-grabber who demeans those who come to testify before his committee. Sometimes his barbs fly at Democratic members of his own committee, and they shoot back.

“All this fanfare, all this showmanship,” griped Massachusetts Democrat Stephen Lynch at a recent rancorous hearing on the IRS email scandal. Lynch said he wouldn’t be surprised to see a 16-piece orchestra at the next morning’s IRS hearing. Issa’s motivation is political gain, not the truth, they say.

Lovefest, bite-a-thon

Yet as much as Royce’s committee seems to be a Kumbaya lovefest compared with Issa’s World Cup bite-a-thon, it is simplistic to write off one chairman as a climber and applaud the other as a miracle worker.

Both men are marked by the specific purposes of their committees, their personalities, the tug-of-war between presidential power and congressional power and, of course, the divided politics of America.

“I think that Darrell and I are very close on policy,” Royce said between meetings and votes on the House floor, in his usual unhurried way. “We have different styles (but) I think we match our different committees. Some committees, such as Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Homeland Security, are historically less partisan (because the) differences among Democrats and Republicans pale in comparison to differences abroad.”

Oversight, on the other hand, exists to scrutinize government, taking on the entrenched interests of Washington and, in this case, the opposition party in power in the White House. White House defenders are at the ready – Democrats make up nearly half the Oversight Committee.

“Issa has to fight hard to do his job, and that means being loud,” Royce said. “When needed, (the Foreign Affairs) committee can be aggressive and I can be quite loud,” he added.

As committee chairmen, they are also expected to raise funds for the Republican Party, and headlines and TV appearances help loosen donor wallets. Issa has raised a total of $3.1 million in this election cycle. Royce has raised $2.4 million, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Issa’s Outrage

“I didn’t come to Congress angry at government,” Issa said, settling into an overstuffed leather chair in his office in the Rayburn House Office Building, steps from the Capitol. There’s a portrait of his Lebanese grandfather above his desk and a tribute to philanthropist and entertainer Danny Thomas, whose ancestry was Lebanese, on a nearby wall.

His outrage, he said, is cumulative. In his business life, as chief executive of a company that developed and made car alarms, he saw a lot of things that frustrated him. But, “I hadn’t seen the kind of abuses that go on all over the country that you get exposed to as a congressman,” he said. For instance, “I hadn’t seen the attempt to take ... from the Marines at Camp Pendleton their ability to do landing exercises at Trestles beach area, and yet I’m watching this happen.”

So, outrage built up, he concludes: “The greatest outrage is when the government doesn’t hold itself to the same level of accountability that we hold the public to.”

So, yes, Issa sometimes gets tough. He used a subpoena to compel a hesitant White House witness to show up at a hearing. Bare-knuckled? Perhaps. Effective? The witness showed up.

He counts among his committee’s “wins” shining a spotlight on extravagant conference spending by the General Services Administration ($822,000 on a four-day Las Vegas conference), the Internal Revenue Service ($49 million on 225 conferences between 2010 and 1012, including a $4.1 million event in Anaheim) and Veterans Affairs (two 2011 Florida events, $6.1 million).

“It changed how all entities view conferences,” Issa said.

But other projects have not found resolution. The Benghazi investigation is moving into a select committee.

Is he too combative with his colleagues? Does he go over the top? “No,” is Issa’s reply. “The chairman has certain things they have to do and one of them is to balance the time fairly,” he said, referring to limits for statements, questions and responses.

Issa later adds, slightly contrite: “Nobody’s perfect. ... The real challenge is you try to be even (with) the gavel.”

Royce’s world

Despite two-party rancor, Royce and the ranking member of Foreign Affairs, Eliot Engel, a Democrat from New York, have found ways to walk in step.

Ed Royce “has worked hard to make this the most bipartisan committee in Congress,” Engel said from the dais at a May hearing.

In a recent interview, Engel elaborated: “I think Ed and I conduct ourselves in (a bipartisan) way and let our members know that from time to time we disagree but that we will disagree agreeably.”

The collaboration helps move bills not only through the House, but also slide into the Democratic-controlled Senate, where Engel and Royce have good relations with Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. A bill related to Taiwan became law last year.

Royce said his style comes from his political inspiration, Republican President Ronald Reagan. If Reagan, with his iron fist in a velvet glove, could work with hard-charging Democratic Speaker Tip O’Neill and push through landmark legislation, Royce figures he can, too.

Issa-Royce mind-meld?

Many people called the comparison of the two chairmen “apt,” and conservative radio host Erick Erickson, Fox News contributor and editor of Redstate.com, even suggested a merger of sorts:

Erickson wrote the Register in an email: “It seems Issa’s staff goes for the headlines, but then abandons the issue once the headline is gotten. Royce, on the other hand, is quiet. He doesn’t seem to go for the headlines at all, but steers into the minutiae. If we could put them together as one person, we’d have one hell of a chairman of some committee.”

Read the original story in the OC Register here.